Richmond: Broken Promises, New Covenants

The history here is as thick as the air on a summer evening — from the stately homes lining Monument Avenue to the timeless brick warehouses along the James River. Richmond today hums with energy thanks to a thriving arts scene, up-and-coming colleges and universities, and innovative national corporations whose headquarters anchor the local economy. But on a still night you can also hear the humming of Richmond’s past: port of entry for the Atlantic slave trade, capital of the Confederacy, and site of urban-suburban divisions as stark as any in America. Yet it’s here that a multicultural and multiclass generation of Christian leaders are building new kinds of institutions that take Richmond’s future as seriously as its past.